Hoyer: No one would vote for ObamaCare if they read the bill

posted at 8:33 pm on July 8, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

The modern definition of gaffe is “the accidental act of a politician telling the truth.” Steny Hoyer gives us a demonstration in his assessment of the health-care reform bill his party is pushing in both chambers of Congress. The bill will get plenty of support as long as no one actually bothers to learn what it does:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it.

“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.

Hoyer was responding to a question from CNSNews.com on whether he supported a pledge that asks members of the Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it and also make the full text of the bill available to the public for 72 hours before a vote.

In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.

This goes beyond the inanity of Hoyer in this particular application. We elect Representatives from each district and Senators from each state to make the laws which govern us. We didn’t elect their staffs to do that work for the empty suits who go to Washington. The culture in the Beltway has evolved to the point where our elected officials have more or less become accessories to the permanent aide class within DC.

Elected officials will claim that legislation has become too complex to master individually. Well, there’s a solution for that, too — stop offering bills so hideously complex and expensive that only the most skilled Talmudists can discern their meaning and impact. It’s precisely because the legislative process has run off the rails that we get bucketloads of unintended consequences from bills like the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, and McCain-Feingold.

A good rule of thumb: if a Representative or a Senator can’t be expected to read it, it shouldn’t pass into law. Apply this standard, and watch how that stops the growth of government and the stupidities of the law.

Blowback

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I can’t believe Hoyer actually laughed at the suggestion that our elected officials read a bill before voting for it. I’ve said it before — if any employee bound his or her employer to a contract without reading it and understanding its consequences, they would and should be fired.

Lucky for Hoyer that elected officials operate by an entirely different standard.

C’Mon, why don’t we just do away with the whole “bill” thingie anyway. “Show of hands, ladies and germs in the chamber. All those in favor of letting Czar Fillnthblank take care of the thingamajob that’s got all our voters wishing they had some of that? Good. Those in favor of Secretary X making sure our voters’ feel avenged for any sleight to them, their heritage, their ancestral homeland and the puppy they wish they had growing up? Settled then. Let’s recess.”

How about we just add an amendment to the US constitution that states that any senator or congressman who signs any legislation without reading it first be taken out and shot on the capital building step within 10 seconds of their signing said legislation?????

Expecting any of these morons to exercise common sense is about as futile as trying to explain what individual freedom and personal responsibility means to a dead brain liberal. They don’t get it, they don’t want to get it, and they see absolutely no reason why they should get it.

The lefties on the hill don’t know what common sense is and wouldn’t have any use for it even if they could understand the meaning of the word.

Interesting point about the permanent aide class however. Perhaps something needs to be done about that too. How much trouble has been dropped on our heads and how much extra tax do we pay because these bozos let the aides handle all of our national business?

The Ten Commandments only took two pages, and they have been sufficient for about 4000 years of human activity.

While Congress cannot be expected to be as proficient and prescient as the Author of the Ten Commandments, it does seem like we should have a lot less law.

After all, the whole idea behind the Ten Tables of Rome was that, for the first time, citizens would be able to read all of the law and therefore “ignorance of the law” is no excuse for breaking the law. Today some medium-sharp lawyer could easily make the case that the present body of law is so vast that it is unknowable…even by the best lawyers…and that therefore “ignorance of the law” IS a valid excuse for breaking the law!!!

Sometimes, despite the chaos which would occur if this ever happens, I think that this kind of scenario is the only way we’ll be able to get ‘hold of our legal system and make it functional and fair again.

How about a Constitutional Ammendment which permanently limits the entire body of Federal law to 435 pages: one for each elected Congressman. When both sides of the 435 pages are full (we need to specify 10 pt type minimum size), Congress must repeal something in order to enact a new law. This way, everyone would again be able to read and know the law.

It’s just common sense. Don’t vote on anything you don’t research first. If everyone did this our government and our financial system would be so much better and Obama would still be knocking on doors in Chicago.

How about we just add an amendment to the US constitution that states that any senator or congressman who signs any legislation without reading it first be taken out and shot on the capital building step within 10 seconds of their signing said legislation?????

doriangrey on July 8, 2009 at 8:50 PM

Best idea I’ve heard yet. But why bother amending the Constitution? That seems like so much trouble. Hell, the Dems don’t bother to amend the Constitution before they change it.

No one would have voted for Obama if the press had read his “bill of goods” and reported on it.

Daggett on July 8, 2009 at 8:51 PM

Sorry, but I’m pretty certain that at least 90 percent of the African-American community would have voted for Obama even had they known that he was the biblical Satan himself, just as long as he was also BLACK…

Sorry, but I’m pretty certain that at least 90 percent of the African-American community would have voted for Obama even had they known that he was the biblical Satan himself, just as long as he was also BLACK…

doriangrey on July 8, 2009 at 8:55 PM

I don’t think color is the issue; it’s the (D) behind the name.

Can anyone think of a Black Republican who could win more of the Black vote than a White Democrat like Bill Clinton?

How about we just add an amendment to the US constitution that states that any senator or congressman who signs any legislation without reading it first be taken out and shot on the capital building step within 10 seconds of their signing said legislation?????

The modern definition of gaffe is “the accidental act of a politician telling the truth.”

“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,”

I don’t think it is accidental. On every major bill passed since Obama came into office, someone like Hoyer comes out and almost bragged about bills never being read. It’s almost like they are giving themselves cover.

When I called to give my two cents on the Cap & Trade Bill, I asked the staffer who answered the phone if my representative had read the magic three hundred page addition. She gave me the impression that the staff was working on it but it was hard because the phones wouldn’t stop ringing. I almost cried for her./

I apologize for my ineptness. I have been voting against Hoyer every two years since I turned 18 in 1981. To this day I have been unable to close the deal, for that I am truly sorry.

I commend Hoyer for his honesty, a first I think, but if he stays true to form, he will do all he can to make sure no Bill will be on the floor for scrutiny.

Never trust a Maryland Democrat, a perfect example is Pelosi, her father had her on the stump in Baltimore at age eight, and that’s a fact. She is from a powerful Baltimore political family, at least they were back in the day.

I am fast preparing for a day when America is no more, it is tear fetching, but I feel it is coming.

None of this is new. Not only do Congressmen and Senators not read the legislation that they are voting on, many of them don’t even bother writing it; that task too often falls to interest groups and staff attorneys. So you have Legislators voting on bills that they did not write, and have not read.

Elected officials will claim that legislation has become too complex to master individually. Well, there’s a solution for that, too — stop offering bills so hideously complex and expensive that only the most skilled Talmudists can discern their meaning and impact.

This is the money quote. Also, those pesky unintended consequences are harder to predict with complex legislation.

So, reason tells us that complexity (in the case of legislation) can be bad.

Now Steny Hoyer has been the one to call out the emperors nudity.

Gaffe or not – we need to get this out there.
How about a whole chorus of spokesman go out there, through any medium they can find, and tell the American people that they support Steny Hoyers position on the proposed Obamacare legislation.

Don’t even explain it – just make it sound like Hoyer’s against the legislation.

Sorry to be pessimistic, but I’ve heard people griping about politicians my whole life, but not much changes–certainly very little improves. No one seems to learn from history, even recent history (like the Carter years).

One could argue that a nation gets the governance it deserves.

Suppose we get elect a good president in 2012. Eight years later, no matter how successful he/she is, the electorate may decide things could be better and vote, once again, for hope and change.

Ummm, how long do I get to f/s the AR15?? Gutting large game, not really a big deal, provided I get to you know, use a real knife and not a piece of flint napped stone… ;)
doriangrey on July 8, 2009 at 9:25 PM

You can take as much time as you need, though while you are trying to clear a blockage or jam I will be flanking you and preparing to turn you into a 12 gauge jigsaw puzzle. Take all the time in the world if you like.

Did I mention that you need to gut the large game while it is still alive and unwounded? With your teeth? Blindfolded?

So the staff reads it, then what, they recite chapter and verse of everything they read to their congressman? No, they probably cherry pick what they deem suitable to pass on. Nice, a bunch of staffers who we don’t know, and were probably given their job as payback are reading the bills and making decisions.

Let Freedom Ring has sent to and asked each representative and senator to sign a pledge that each will read the bills they vote on and will give the people 72 hours to review the bills. Let Freedom Ring will give congress two weeks to respond and then will release the results. The organization has also asked that we, the people, send a copy to each of our congressional delegation. Yes, these bills are long and complicated, but when I was a manager of major construction projects I had to read and comprehend what was involved in my projects and was held accountable for what was the result of implementing those requirements; I expect no more of my congresspersons. I would also expect each member who signed the pledge to work to block any vote or approval until they had fulfilled the requirements of the pledge.

I would say that not signing this pledge or working to implement it would be a sufficient reason for me not to vote for a member of my congressional delegation.

I would like all proposed bills and amendments to be available on line for at least 7 days prior to any action taken, unless a 3/5ths majority agrees to override the delay. Could that be adopted as a rule when Republicans next take over the House?

We need to realize (any many do) that this is nothing more than taxation without representation. A representative who can’t be bothered to read legislation is one is refuses to understand how he/she is spending my tax dollars. That leads to the arrogance and out-of-touchedness that we all feel from our these people who are supposed to represent our interests.

Also, I know a couple of Congressional staffers, and they are twenty-somethings who majored in political science. How scary is it that they are the ones writing our laws??

I don’t believe aides write these bills – I think they’re actually written by lobbyists. Senator/Representative simply tells their aides that all requests for funding must be presented by such-and-such a date, then they’re just collected and slapped into the bill in question. Their is just no way that congressman whomever could possibly know, or care, about 90% of the obscure crap that our tax dollars are funding. They’re too busy raising money for the next election.

In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.

These clowns could be sooooooooo dead if the GOP would just mount a relentless opposition.

I would like all proposed bills and amendments to be available on line for at least 7 days prior to any action taken, unless a 3/5ths majority agrees to override the delay. Could that be adopted as a rule when Republicans next take over the House?

Loxodonta on July 8, 2009 at 9:37 PM

Not a bad idea but I’d switch from 7 days to 1 year. Less legislation, less expense, less loss of freedom.

“I, (name of Member), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”